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Essay: Balancing Independence with Relationship: Exploring Hamlet’s Struggle

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  • Subject area(s): Essay examples
  • Reading time: 5 minutes
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  • Published: 23 March 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 1,227 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 5 (approx)
  • Tags: Hamlet essays

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Individuals often encounter a struggle between competing forces, which only lead to further doubt since it is not only about a matter of picking one or the other. It is important to protect our sense of personal identity and help guard against being overwhelmed by the demands of their surroundings and maintain independence. However, relationships support individuals not only in their ability to adapt to pressure or adversity, but also in their attempts to grow, explore, learn, accomplish goals, and find the purpose in life. As suggested in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the eponymous hero struggles to balance a desire for independence with the need to maintain meaningful relationships with others. Hamlet struggles to restore independence and relationships as he becomes fixated in fulfilling the purpose his father’s ghost bequeathed him to, which only leads him to take a decisive course of action that helps him realize that achieving a state of true “balance” between independence and relationships with others was not possible.

The main story arc of Hamlet lies in seeking revenge for his father’s death, as he encounters further complex forces to achieve his goal and gain contentment. Hamlet was commanded by his father’s ghost to ‘revenge his foul and most unnatural murder’ (1. 5. 25) committed by his brother Claudius, who comes to the throne as the new king and marries Gertrude. Hamlet begins to wonder whether his own mother could be involved in the murder of his father, as this uncertainty makes him detest life and humankind, and causes him to have thoughts that dwell on suicide. In his ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy, it is shown that the only reason preventing him from taking his own life is that it is against the Christian religion. Hamlet swears that ‘with wings as swift / As meditation, or the thoughts of love,’ he will ‘sweep to [his] revenge’ (1.5.25, 29–31). As Hamlet is mourning for King Hamlet, his actions are driven by his connection with his father and his death. Hamlet griefs privately as his mourning for King Hamlet is long and drawn out, two months after his father’s death, he is still wearing “…suits of solemn black.”(1.2.82). Hamlet attempts to maintain and fulfill his oath to King Hamlet’s ghost, resulting to sacrifice of his own independence. When revenging for his father’s death, Hamlet sustains responsibilities and obligations placed on him. The father and son relationship has an enormous impact on many character’s lives in this play, as Laertes, Fortinbras, and Hamlet are parallel characters, which want to seek revenge for their father’s death. Hamlet grapples with the consequence of discovering who had murdered his father, as he attempts to respect his relationship with his father and seek immediate bloody revenge.

As he seeks revenge for the murder of his father, he has to deal with the betrayal of his mother. Hamlet’s feeling towards his mother change throughout the play, which shows how he is struggling to balance his relationship with Gertrude and take revenge on his treasonous uncle. In this play, the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude has an enormous impact on how Hamlet behaves and approaches the death of his father. When the ghost talks privately to Hamlet, he discovers about the unfaithfulness and infidelity of his mother. Gertrude was seduced by “that incestuous, that adulterate beast/With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts/O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power/So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust” (1.5. 48-51) prior to the death of King Hamlet. He couldn’t trust his own mother, even though she was one of the few people he had after his father’s death. As Hamlet anticipated his mother, the cherishing wife of his deceased father, to grieve and never marry again but Gertrude did. Through a great part of the play, their relationship and interaction leave Hamlet with outrage and dissatisfaction. Consumed and overwhelmed by the murder of King Hamlet, Hamlet is aggravated by the way Gertrude exults in her new marriage instead of grieving. Hamlet speculates that his own mother may have played a role in his father’s murder, as she has forsaken his father by marrying the new King of Denmark, Claudius, merely two months after his death. The combination of Hamlet’s disdain and vindictiveness alongside with Gertrude’s constant espionage of Hamlet creates a strained relationship loaded up with aversion. Hamlet fails to maintain a meaningful relationship with his mother as it changes from disrespectful and mistrustful to a bittersweet ending, allowing his thoughts and independence to take over.

Hamlet intellectually battles himself on the path to gaining true independence by avenging his father’s death as he is mentally incapable to make a final decision to kill Claudius; as he is always hesitating and wasting time. Hamlet himself is baffled by his failure to act expeditiously, as he rebukes himself harshly in Act 2. ‘But in a fiction, in a dream of passion’ (2.2.552) puts Hamlet to disgrace, because ‘the motive and the cue for passion’ (2.2.561) that Hamlet has are real and compelling. Hamlet’s undeniable ability to act definitively when he wants to, as he does when he charges boldly after the ghost, but not when he needs to, as he was given numerous opportunities to murder Claudius. As he denies his opportunity for revenge when Claudius was praying, he realizes that he has only been deceiving himself and failing to maintain his relationship and oath with his father. When he sets “The Mousetrap” ‘to catch the conscience of the king’ (2.2.605), Hamlet had confirmed that Claudius had murdered his father, yet he hesitated to seek revenge even though he has absolute proof and justification for his revenge. In Act 4, Hamlet finds himself lost and shamed yet again when Fortinbras’s army is marching towards their doom, only ‘to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name’ (4.4.18–19). In Hamlet’s soliloquies, it is apparent that Hamlet is a deep thinker, which is another reason he struggles to seek revenge and delays the King’s death when presented with an opportunity. Unfortunately, Hamlet possesses some emotional, intellectual or psychological flaws, that lead to failed attempts that prevent him from fulfilling his revenge. Towards the end of the play, when Hamlet is dying from the poisoned sword, he does not grieve or consider thinking about what will happen to his soul. Instead, he proceeds onward by passing his vote in favor of Fortinbras and requests Horatio to pass his story (5.2.349, 356-357). Furthermore, Hamlet successfully gains true independence and accomplishes the purpose behind his life, but fails in achieving a state of true “balance”.

As suggested in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, individuals attempt to achieve a state of true “balance” in their lives between relationships and independence when encountered with competing forces. Throughout the play, Hamlet tries in many ways to balance his relationships and achieve true independence as he seeks revenge. He attempts to maintain a meaningful relationship with others, however, is too caught up seeking revenge as he deceives everyone and ends up killed himself. Hamlet doubts himself, and thereby is unable to achieve his goal and gain contentment. It is important for an individual to reform his flaws and understand that achieving a state of true “balance” between independence and relationships with others was not possible.

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